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Friday, 19 July 2013

One year ago the first edition of the CrokinoleCentre rankings were released. The main goal was to establish some way of ranking players on their most recent tournaments, to hopefully compare players on their current form. The rankings use results from the past two years with the majority of points weighted with towards the most recent year.

When the rankings were first released, here’s what the top 20 looked like.

Rank

Name

Points

1

Brian Cook

305.5

2

Jon Conrad

298

3

Fred Slater

296.5

4

Ray Beierling

286.5

5

Jason Beierling

281.5

6

Eric Miltenburg

270.5

7

Joe Arnup

262

8

Nathan Walsh

255.5

9

Clare Kuepfer

246.5

10

Ron Haymes

240

11

Paul Brubacher

239

12

Louis Gauthier

233.5

13

Justin Slater

230

14

Howard Martin

223

15

Dave Brown

213.5

16

Matt Brown

183

17

Rex Johnston

179.5

18

Greg Matthison

168.5

19

Chris Gorsline

157

20

Ray Haymes

148

Despite being the first to ever win the doubles and singles categories in one World Championships (and amassing enough points to propel him to his first NCA Tour title), Jon Conrad still sat second to Brian Cook’s consistent form. This seemed fair, as the general consesus of players probably still would have ranked Brian Cook ahead of Jon Conrad at the time, even with Conrad’s historic feat fresh in their mind.

Fred Slater, Ray Beierling and Jason Beierling were coming off consecutive years in the NCA top 5. Miltenurg, Arnup, Walsh, Kuepfer and Gauthier all had strong years in the NCA, while Ron Haymes and Paul Brubacher had recently had strong performances in the World Championships.

Here is a look at the current standings following the 2013 World Championships. (The Top 50 are listed here, but the full rankings including 150 players are listed under the Rankings tab above.)

One full year later and not much has changed among the top group. Most noticeably, Jon Conrad has finally grabbed the number one rankings, moving Brian Cook down to #2. A fitting finish to the year for Conrad, who held the moniker of World Champion, while trying to defend a fantastic start to the NCA Tour, and performed brilliantly through it all. Back-to-back World titles in the singles categories, and a runner-up finish in doubles puts Conrad at the pinnacle of the game of crokinole and easily deserving of the number 1 spot in the rankings.

The rankings points also show a clear distinction between the top 5 and the field, with 33 points between 5th and 6th. A much larger gap than at the start of the year where only 11.5 points separated 5th and 6th. An equally fitting result as the top 5 players, made up the championship finals of every Ontario tournament with the exception of 3. The only Ontario tournament not won by one of these top 5 players was the 2013 St. Jacob’s.

Rank

Name

Points

1

Jon Conrad

304.5

2

Brian Cook

301

3

Fred Slater

297.5

4

Ray Beierling

296.5

5

Jason Beierling

286

6

Eric Miltenburg

253

7

Clare Kuepfer

248.5

8

Nathan Walsh

248

9

Louis Gauthier

246

10

Rex Johnston

235

11

Justin Slater

234.5

12

Matt Brown

231

13

Howard Martin

229.5

14

Roy Campbell

223

15

Tom Johnston

220.5

16

Dave Brown

213

17

Barry Kiggins

206.5

18

Peter Tarle

195

19

Greg Matthison

189.5

20

Chris Gorsline

184

21

John Harvey

177.5

22

Joe Arnup

172

23

Rob Mader

169.5

24

Ron Haymes

162.5

25

Kent Robinson

161.5

26

Ab Leitch

159

27

Lawson Lea

158

28

Dale Henry

157.5

29

Ray Haymes

157

30

Robert Bonnett

155

31

Paul Brubacher

150

32

Lloyd Wiseman

143.5

33

Bob Mader

141

34

Joe Richards

140.5

35

Tony Snyder

139.5

36

Quin Erzinger

139

37

Linda Irvine

137

38

Alex Protas

126.5

39

Rueben Jongsma

126

40

Nathan Jongsma

125.5

41

Ron Reesor

124

42

Adrian Conradi

123.5

43

Michael Hughes

120

44

Reg Chisholm

120

45

Ed Ripley

116.5

46

Bill Freeman

115

47

Ed Erzinger

111.5

48

Roger Vaillancourt

111.5

49

Denis Chartier

110

50

Tom Doucette

109

Throughout the year, the results of only the singles events of the year have been tracked, with the idea that removing the doubles tournaments will provide as different look at each players form, and perhaps give a better idea of who the top players are.

At the start of the year the top 5 looked like this:

Rank

Singles Only

Points

1

Brian Cook

305.5

2

Jon Conrad

298

3

Fred Slater

296.5

4

Ray Beierling

286.5

5

Jason Beierling

281.5

Throughout the year Brian Cook held the number 1 spots in both ranking categories, and will remain the number 1 ranked player in this category at the end of the season. However, the hunt for the top spot has become much tighter with less than 4 points separating the top 3 players. Furthermore, that hunt for the top has created a massive gap between the top 3 and the remaining field, separated by 38 points.

Rank

Singles Only

Points

1

Brian Cook

295

2

Jon Conrad

293.5

3

Ray Beierling

291.5

4

Fred Slater

253.5

5

Eric Miltenburg

246

6

Nathan Walsh

232

7

Clare Kuepfer

227.5

8

Louis Gauthier

222

9

Jason Beierling

221

10

Howard Martin

209.5

11

Roy Campbell

194

12

Peter Tarle

171.5

13

Ab Leitch

159

14

Dale Henry

157.5

15

Greg Matthison

155.5

16

Justin Slater

153.5

17

Barry Kiggins

142

18

Tom Johnston

138

19

Dave Brown

136

20

Joe Arnup

128

21

Alex Protas

126.5

22

Rueben Jongsma

126

23

Ron Reesor

124

24

John Harvey

122.5

25

Rob Mader

115.5

26

Paul Brubacher

113

27

Reg Chisholm

99

28

Bob Mader

90

29

Tom Doucette

88.5

30

Chris Gorsline

88

Overall it has been an enjoyable start to producing and tracking these rankings, and this will continue into the future.

Soon around in the calendar is the second annual running of the Turtle Island Crokinole Tournament in Lewiston, New York on August 11th. And as an extra bonus it will be added to the 2013-2014 NCA Tour.

About Me

CrokinoleCentre was created to capture the competitive crokinole scene. It is hoped that Crokinole Centre will help stimulate interest in the competitive side of crokinole, and bring the game to the next level. If you have a crokinole story, club, or tournament to share, let CrokinoleCentre know.